Neurochemistry and Neuropharmacology
Author: Maria Cecilia Gutierrez | Email: cecilia.gutierrez@unc.edu.ar
María Cecilia Gutierrez1°2°, Luis Manzanelli1°, María Cecilia Perondi1°, Analia Valdomero1°2°
1° Departamento de Farmacología Otto Orsingher, Facultad de Ciencias Químicas, Universidad Nacional de Córdoba
2° IFEC (CONICET)
Previous findings from our lab demonstrated that perinatal protein restriction facilitates depressive-like behavior later in life and may increase the risk of developing anhedonia by altering BDNF-TrkB signaling in the nucleus accumbens (NAc) shell.
Building on this, the present study aimed to assess whether the alterations observed in adult rats are also evident in 30-days-old offspring, immediately after the period of protein restriction. To this end, male pups subjected to perinatal protein restriction (PR-rats) were submitted to the sucrose preference test (SPT), a paradigm commonly used to evaluate anhedonia, and compared to animals fed a normoprotein diet (NP-rats). After the SPT, rats from both groups were sacrificed for quantification of BDNF levels in the NAc. In line with the results observed in adulthood, we found a lower sucrose preference in the 30-days-old PR-group, which correlated with increased BDNF levels in the NAc. Similar findings were found in adult and 30-days-old PR-female rats.
Altogether, our findings suggest that the behavioral and molecular changes observed in adult rats are due to the persistence of enduring alterations resulting from malnutrition during perinatal development. These alterations impair the brain’s ability to respond appropriately to external stimuli, thereby facilitating anhedonic-like behavior in a sex-independent manner.